May 6:
Recently retired Indian Vice-Admiral Arun Kumar Singh has said China’s newly discovered Sanya Nuclear Submarine Naval Base on the southern coast of Hainan island gives an upper hand to Beijing in the Southeast Asian region. Satellite photos released earlier this month confirmed that the Chinese have built a massive naval base strategically located with respect to Taiwan, the Indian Ocean, South China Sea region, and the straits of Malacca, through which all international shipping must flow. “Though the Chinese Navy is presently ‘Taiwan centric’ and is being built up to deter the US Navy,” Singh recently wrote in the Indian Express, “this base is ideally located to enable interdiction of shipping at the three access/choke points but also will permit Chinese submarines and surface units greatly expanded access to the Indian Ocean.”
May 7:
President Hu Jintao paid a state visit to Japan from May 6-10. He held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and the two sides issued a "China-Japan Joint Statement on All-Round Promotion of Strategic and Mutually Beneficial Relations," the official People’s Daily reports. This document included a host of bilateral statements on key issues including several top level military visits between leaders of the China’s People’s Liberation Army and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, joint military training sessions, reciprocal Navy port calls, and the establishment of a mechanism for maritime contacts between Chinese and Japanese defense departments. As part of this year’s "China-Japan Youth Friendly Exchange Year" both sides agreed to strengthen the exchanges between young military officers. Interestingly, China and Japan also agreed to strengthen the possibility of carrying out cooperation in Africa.
May 8:
Noting acute threats from Uighur separatists, the "Tibet independence" forces, and the "Falun Gong" cult, Tian Yixiang, director of the military work department of the Beijing Olympic Games Security Coordination Group, has said anti-terrorism is the top security priority for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. To cope with possible emergencies, the PLA Olympic security forces have “formulated sufficient countermeasures.” In comments carried by the Zhongguo Xinwen, She Tian said those measures include no-fly zones above Olympic venues and air clearance controls to guarantee air security. Anti-chemical warfare units, engineering units, and medical units will also be deployed to discover and cope with poisonous and hazardous substances. According to Tian the PLA Olympic security forces decided to mobilize army, naval, and aviation units from four military regions. The armaments and equipment being mobilized include warplanes, helicopters, warships, ground-to-air missiles, radars, anti-chemical devices, and engineering support equipment.
May 9:
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has unveiled details of a controversial $9.25 billion agreement that pledges 10.62 million tons of copper and 620,000 tons of cobalt to China in exchange for roads, railways and other infrastructure, reports the Financial Times. Success, however, is dependent on overcoming decades of Congolese dictatorship, conflict and political turmoil, in a country with less than 5,000km of tarred roads.
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